Vicente Salas, Plaintiff and Appellant, v. Sierra Chemical Co., Defendant and Respondent, 59 Cal. 4th 407

Summary

The Supreme Court concluded that Senate Bill No. 1818, which extends state law employee protections and remedies to all workers regardless of immigration status, is not preempted by federal immigration law except to the extent it authorizes an award of lost pay damages for any period after the employer's discovery of an employee's ineligibility to work in the United States. The doctrines of after-acquired evidence and unclean hands are not complete defenses to a worker's claims under FEHA, although they do affect the availability of remedies. Plaintiff's evidence, if true, would support a finding that defendant employer deliberately chose to look the other way when put on notice of employees' unauthorized status. Such a finding could affect application of the after-acquired evidence doctrine and thus the remedies available to plaintiff. The appellate court erred in treating the doctrine of unclean hands as a complete defense to plaintiff's lawsuit.